The Lightning Thief is a musical based on the first book of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson book series. Although it only had a brief run on Broadway, it will be sticking around to go on tour. I’ve only seen the Broadway version at the time I’m writing this review, but I plan to see the tour version as well.

To give some context, I knew from the beginning this musical would possess significant sentimental value because the Percy Jackson books were an integral part of my childhood. Even though I’m older now, they will always have a place close to my heart. Therefore, before I even listened to the soundtrack, I already had an idea of the general storyline. Nevertheless, there were definitely unexpected loud noises–partly due to the fact that I didn’t pay enough careful attention to the soundtrack–but also, because I didn’t have a good guide to pinpoint me towards those sounds.

Before the first song, “Prologue/The Day I Got Expelled,” the show begins with a surprising boom and a flashing light to simulate thunder and lightning. This is similar to the beginning of Beetlejuice. Later on in “Prologue/The Day I Got Expelled,” Percy finds out his substitute teacher, Mrs. Dodds, is not who, or more importantly, what she appears to be. Following the line, “And your father? That’s right… you don’t know who he is!” she starts to laugh which morphs into an evil cackle. As she attempts to attack Percy, lights flash, and the music grows in intensity and volume.

The next song to watch out for is “The Minotaur/The Weirdest Dream.” It begins with Percy’s mom yelling at Percy and his friend, Grover, to get to safety while she holds off an attacking minotaur. Percy protests trying to bait the minotaur to focus on him instead of his mom, but he fails. With a piercing scream followed by her disappearance, Percy’s mom appears to have sacrificed herself to save her son.

At the end of the song, “Put You in Your Place,” Percy unlocks his potential as–though he doesn’t know it yet–the son of Poseidon. He harnesses the water in a toilet and it shoots out at Clarisse, a fellow camper and a daughter of Ares. The next song is “The Campfire Song,” and after that is “The Oracle.” The music and lighting effects grow intense as the Oracle appears but nothing too crazy stands out to me. (I’ll have to wait until it goes on tour to find out for sure, and then I’ll update this post.)

The first act ends with the song “Killer Quest!” followed by a flash of lightning. Similarly, the second act begins with a flash of lightning, along with a confetti cannon which represents an explosion–Percy, Annabeth, and Grover blow up a bus to escape a group of harpies. The next few songs are fairly simple; the stage is lit by bright lighting for the song “D.O.A.” to represent the underworld, but nothing too extreme. Then, we get to the final showdown, beginning with “Son of Poseidon.” After clearing Hades’s name, Percy believes Ares must be the lightning thief, and they face off in an intense battle where Percy uses his power over water to win the fight.

Finally, Percy discovers that the true lightning thief was at camp half-blood all along, fitting perfectly with the Oracle’s prophecy that Percy would be betrayed by someone he thought was a friend. They fight and Percy succeeds in retrieving Zeus’s bolt, but it is clear that the story is far from over. Nevertheless, Percy and his friends, Grover and Annabeth, plan to be prepared for whatever challenges lie ahead, or as they put it, “Bring on the Monsters.”

I won’t deny that The Lightning Thief is intense, but I think if you’re willing to put in the time to get to know the show and all its ins and outs, it’s worth seeing. It’s especially worthwhile for fans who want to see The Lightning Thief book brought to life but were highly disappointed by the movie adaptation. And, as an added bonus for Be More Chill fans: Joe Tracz wrote the book (i.e. the script) for both musicals.